With Greek exegesis starting up in a few days, I'm reminded that preaching involves three things.
1. We read the text.
2. We explain the text.
3. We exhort on the basis of the text.
Step 3 is indispensable. Here God confronts us where we live and the Bible is related to life. Thus the preaching task is not finished until we relate the passage to the experience of our hearers, who are called on to live under God in the light of biblical revelation.
Effective sermons always relate biblical truth to life. And they do so in a specific, not general, way.